An interesting breeding possibility

Fusion_power · December 6, 2012

I thought about "keeping qualities" too, but have not put enough effort into it yet. I was mulling using Piennolo del Vesuvio as a model for a long term storage tomato, but it has a very thick skin which seems to be necessary to prevent moisture loss. There is also a possibility of using sugar accumulation to stabilize a tomato for long term storage. Plant sugars can be hygroscopic under some conditions so it is possible that some selection work could identify a tomato that would store longer because it is sweeter. Longkeeper is not bad as a tomato, but the way it works is by modification of one of the ethylene genes. I'm not sure that would be a good idea since monkeying around with ethylene rapidly degrades flavor.

DarJones

December 6, 2012	#1
Fusion_power Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Alabama Posts: 2,250	I thought about "keeping qualities" too, but have not put enough effort into it yet. I was mulling using Piennolo del Vesuvio as a model for a long term storage tomato, but it has a very thick skin which seems to be necessary to prevent moisture loss. There is also a possibility of using sugar accumulation to stabilize a tomato for long term storage. Plant sugars can be hygroscopic under some conditions so it is possible that some selection work could identify a tomato that would store longer because it is sweeter. Longkeeper is not bad as a tomato, but the way it works is by modification of one of the ethylene genes. I'm not sure that would be a good idea since monkeying around with ethylene rapidly degrades flavor. DarJones